As groups of new students are given tours of what will be their home for the next four years they are shown what will soon become familiar to them: ping pong in the H.A.W.C. basketball games in the Fieldhouse NSO leaders frolicking in the fountains step team performances on the sidewalk and giant bananas being chased around by gorillas— all part of an ordinary day at Pepperdine.
The reasoning behind playing out these scenes while simultaneously causing the incoming freshmen to question their decision to attend Pepperdine was the lip dub brainchild of senior Kinsey Cronin.
A lip dub is a music video that combines lip-synching and music dubbing. After seeing a challenge online in May for communication students to film a lip dub that showed off their campus and student body in one continuous take she immediately decided to create a lip dub for Pepperdine’s NSO.
“I wanted to create a video for NSO because I thought it’d be a great way to welcome new students and would include all the orientation leaders who wanted to be involved Cronin said.
Cronin a telecommunication production major put together a production team of seniors Kyle Helf Karee Maxon and Mishy Turner and then started planning. Facebook groups were created and sign-up sheets were passed around to eventually include a total of 85 students who wanted to be a part of the lip dub (more people participated in the event spur-of-the-moment).
Students who signed up ahead of time were asked what they might bring to the table whether it was a costume talent or hobby. As a result the video came to include scenes such as choreographed dances a couple pumped-up back flips and bathing beauties in the Smothers’ fountain.
“The important thing for me about this video was that it actually represented things that Pepperdine students like doing. I mean obviously people don’t swim in the fountain all the time but it just shows how much fun we like to have Cronin said.
The biggest feat of this challenge was getting everything to run smoothly in one shot. In order for this challenge to be properly followed there could be no splicing of separate takes. The production team had a hard time accepting imperfections in the video and took a total of three takes before deciding it was good enough.
“On the technical side of things doing a six-minute continual shot is just crazy Turner said. You always want to take one more shot but there comes a point where you just have to say ‘You know what? The work we did is really solid.’ We knew it wouldn’t be perfect and we were happy with what we got because the energy was so great.”
It took months of planning a couple massively detailed e-mails a map drawing and endless amounts of team coordination between the producers orientation coordinators and orientation leaders before the final video was actually put together.
“I’m really proud of everyone who rose to the occasion and put up with the hot sun and gave so much energy Cronin said. We couldn’t have had a better group of people.”
The orientation leaders who participated were eager to spend a couple hours having fun while giving the freshmen a unique peek into life at Pepperdine.
“I love being a part of a project that’s bigger than yourself. It’s so much fun and always worth it senior Karee Maxon said.
The video premiered to the class of 2014 on Wednesday night much to the enthusiasm of incoming and returning students alike.
“It was fun and impressive freshman Austin Thompson said. The guy in the baby blue deep-V that made an appearance was the best. It got everyone wound up and hollerin’ and feeling welcome.”